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DELIVER l.D BEFOEE THE 



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BROOKLYN, N. Y., 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1863. 






BV EDWIN JA1£S 




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BAKE R & G D WIN, P R 1NTE R S 

Printing-House Square, opposite City Hall. 

18(33 



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In the dark hour of national adversity and trial we meet to 
commemorate the ever memorable Declaration, of Indepen- 
dence. "We celebrate the eighty-seventh anniversary of the 
nation's birth-day. Gloomy and clouded as are the visions of 
the future, the memories awakened by the recurrence of this 
day should inspire us with hope. We should more than ever 
appreciate our deep responsibility. We have enjoyed the great 
privilege of free constitutional government. We owe our ad- 
miration and our gratitude to the men who framed that gov- 
ernment and created the nation ; and we are, indeed, unworthy 
the inheritance if we allow all our aspirations for the future 
grandeur of our country, and all our recollections of her past 
career, to be changed to bitter disappointment and despair. 
Our nation, as we reckon the age of nations, is yet in its in- 
fancy : one of the most prosperous upon which the sun of 
heaven has ever shone, she had reached greatness, as the poel 
described the birth of Venice, from the wave of the Adriatic, 

" As by the touch of the enchanters wand." 

A giant nation, yet in its infancy. Its vast geographical 
extent, its territorial acquisitions, the mighty increase of its 
population — from three millions at the date of her indepen- 
dence to more than thirty-one millions — the tide of immigra- 
tion still swelling and peopling its fertile regions with enter- 
prising and industrious races, already the granary of more 
than half the world ; the spread of education, the rapidity with 
which civilization and the arts have advanced, have been the 
theme of wonder and astonishment to the whole civilized world. 
Prosperous at home, abroad our country ranked as one of the 
great nations of the earth. Removed by her policy of non- 
interference, she soared in isolated grandeur above the petty 



complications of foreign polities. She threatened no wars bnt 
in supgprt of her own dignity and protection. Her commerce 
floated peacefully upon every sea, and she had proved that the 
freest institutions and that a republican government were not 
incompatible with national prosperity. Her power exacted 
unwilling recognition from continental nations — enemies of her 
free system of government. 

Liberty of speech, liberty of action, were enshrined here. 
The poet's dream was almost realized : 

"Liberty ! ! Go sock 
Earth's loftiest heights, ocean's deepest caves — 
Go where the sea-snake and the eaglet dwell 
Midst mighty elements — where nature is, 
And man is not. Then may you see afar, 
Impalpable as is the rainbow on the cloud, 
The glorious vision — Liberty ! ! " 

The American citizen has reason to be proud of such a 
country. " Civis Bomanus sum" was uttered by the Apostle 
when he defiantly demanded the shield of his country's protec- 
tion ; and the American citizen in foreign lands received con- 
sideration and respect. Amid the gaudy pageantry of Euro- 
pean courts, amid the haughty circles of old and traditional 
aristocracies, lie prided himself on the austere simplicity of his 
country's forms. He loves his Republic ; for he has stood 
beside thrones from which monarchs have been ejected ; lie 
lias visited palaces which have sheltered various dynas- 
ties; he lias met the families of kings supplicating the 
assistance of friendly governments ; princes fugitive from 
their outraged subjects ; the haughty Uourbon a wanderer, and 
the Orleanist a refugee. He contrasted his own form of gov- 
ernment with that of the monarchies of Europe, and it suffered 
little from the comparison. Such reflections endeared him to 
his country, and made him value her institutions. 

And but two years since, when the national banners of 
England and France fluttered before him, lie could point with 
pride to his own country's flag— that flag which not a century 
ago Congress had resolved should be his Nation's Emblem*: 
"That the thirteen then United States should be designated by 



thirteen stripes.' 1 He could point to it with twenty-one new 
stars added to the constellation of 1771, and its tine field 
glittering with thirty-four symbols of Liberty and Union. But 
all is changed. • 

The rapid and onward course of national happiness and 
prosperity is interrupted. A War, upon the origin of which I 
do not now stop to dilate, and the results of which no man can 
foretell, is raging in our midst — a war gigantic, from the mag- 
nitude of its arena, from the vastness of its armaments, from 
the enormous expenditure it will entail, from the heroic valor 
of the combatants on either side, from the improvements in 
the science of artillery and naval armaments which it has 
developed, and the importance >f its results to the whole 
civilized world. Anglo-Saxon never met Anglo-Saxon in such 
combat before ! The nations of Europe are watching with 
intense anxiety every changing phase of the conflict; some 
believing that Republican Institutions are upon their trial and 
hoping that they will fail ; and ardently desiring the separa- 
tion of States hitherto united, and that this great nationality, 
sprung from our independence of the crown of England, 
should be shattered into fragments. Never did patriotism 
respond to its country's call as did the loyal States of the 
Union. The student left his college, the artificer his loom, the 
husbandman his plough, the clerk his desk, the merchant his 
counting-room, the lawyer his practice, the divine his pulpit. 
All rushed to the standard which had been sacrilegiously fired 
upon at Fort Sumter. ISTo country in the world's history ever 
called so great an army into such sudden existence. On many 
a field our armies have acquitted themselves honorably. There 
has been no great naval engagement; but the brave men who 
sunk in the " Cumberland,'" and as the waves rolled over 
them kept their standard at the mast, and uttered their last 
convulsive cry for their country's glory, have achieved renown 
that will never die. 

But how comes it that we meet now, after two years 
of war, and that war no nearer its termination than when 
I first stepped on these generous and hospitable shores in 
August, 1861. The fluctuating fortunes of the contest 



have been unfavorable, and the object of the suppression 
of rebellion, lias up to this time failed. I shall speak frankly. 
If you agree with me I shall feel flattered ; if not, you will, 
I trust, appreciate my candor and give me credit for sincerity. 

The mismanagement and incompetency displa} r ed by the 
Avar department of the Administration, is one of the causes that 
has brought about a state of things perfectly calamitous. Our 
armies have been wasted by disease, their ranks thinned by 
unnecessary carnage, their courage paralyzed and their honor 
sullied by the impotence of generals. Generals have been 
appointed and displaced by secret political influences. A cau- 
tious, prudent, soldier-like general was ordered to report him- 
self at Trenton, and empty, braggart, vain-glorious boasters 
took his place. 

The defeats at Fredericksburg, the retreat from Winchester, 
the alarm now felt for the safety of the capital, the panic at 
Pittsburg, the barricades in the streets at Baltimore, the in- 
vasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, the threatening of 
Harrisburg, are facts which will for ever tarnish the history of 
this civil war. This national humiliation does not arise from 
the want of personal courage or power of endurance of our 
soldiers, but from the ignorance and the inflated vanity of many 
of their commanders, — 

" Men 
Who never set a squadron on the field, 
Nor the division of a battle know 
More than a spinster," 

have been intrusted with the destinies of this war, appointed 
and displaced, reappointed and replaced, in a manner which, 
but for the vast interests involved, would excite ridicule. Merit 
has been thrust aside, and the minions of faction and of party 
have crept into its place. 

Anxiously reflecting upon the manner in which this war 
has been conducted, and the want of confidence which, I be- 
lieve, is generally felt in the administration, I am led to con- 
trast the direct and immediate responsibility of the government 
as it exists in the constitutional monarchy of England, with 
that of the United States. The crown there is represented in 



each branch of the legislature by its ministers, who explain its 
policy, enforce its opinions, and maintain the general principles 
of the government. The action of the popular will upon the 
administration is direct. The important business of the coun- 
try, measures of political and social consequence, are generally 
initiated and discussed in the House of Commons, amongst the 
representatives of the people ; and, contrasted with the hered- 
itary peerage, that branch of the legislature is, in fact, the 
democratic element of the constitution. A vote of want of 
confidence in the administration recorded in the House of 
Commons, or a majority in a division upon any important 
ministerial measure, results in an immediate change of govern- 
ment, or brings the crown in direct collision with the people. 
In this country the president and his ministers are alike ex- 
cluded from Congress ; so that his influence and opinions can 
only penetrate indirectly into such great body. It is an estab- 
lished axiom in Europe that a constitutional monarch cannot 
govern when opposed by the two branches of the legislature. 
But several presidents of the United States have been known 
to lose the majority in the legislative body, without being 
obliged to abandon the supreme power ; so that you may have 
the whole executive government carried on during the presi- 
dential term of office in direct opposition to the wish of the 
people — the very source, in a republic, of legitimate power. 
The Senate may refuse to ratify a treaty, or sanction an ap- 
pointment ; but the House of Representatives cannot dictate a 
policy, nor remove a minister in whom the country has lost its 
confidence. 

ARBITRARY ARRESTS. 

The confidence of the people in the Government — and I use 
that term as synonymous with the Administration — has been 
shaken by the arbitrary arrest of citizens. There has been 
danger of substituting a military despotism for free institutions. 
The arbitrary arrest of a citizen of the State of Ohio, and a 
trial and conviction before a military tribunal at last aroused 
the people, who had evinced much apathy, to the danger which 



threatened their liberty. They have indeed endured much, 
and been patient and long-suffering. Nothing has struck me 
so forcibly as that the American people, who by their own 
prowess had secured those institutions, upon the freedom of 
which they rested with a just pride, should have submitted as 
they have done to repeated outrages inflicted upon them, and 
upon those privileges which they so dearly value, by a weak 
and vacillating administration — an administration which has 
trampled under its feet every law they were bound to respect, 
and arrogated to themselves power, the exercise of which be- 
longed exclusively to the Legislature of the Republic. Robes- 
pierre, when nominated by the Committee of Public Safety 
Prosecutor-General for the District of the Seine ; the Bourbon, 
in the infamous use of the " lettrcs de cachet," never pro- 
pounded such an edict as this, — 

"My Lord, I can touch a bell on my right hand and order the arrest of a 
citizen in Ohio. 1 can touch the bell again and order the imprisonment of a 
citizen of New York ; and no power on earth but that of the President can 
release them. Can the Queen of England in'her dominions do as much?" 

Thus wrote Mr. Seward, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 
to the British Minister on the 14th November, 1861. I know 
not how Lord Lyons answered the question Mr. Seward pro- 
pounded, — -" Can the Queen of England in her dominions do 
as much?" But I venture to answer it, by saying that the 
Queen of England cannot do as much, — would not, if she 
could do as much, — and dare not do as much ; and that the 
veriest despot, by whose existence a people has been ever cursed, 
could not do more ! 

The first great battle of the war had scarcely been fought 
before the fortresses of Lafayette and Warren were turned into 
prisons and peopled with citizens arrested without law, con- 
demned without trial, and imprisoned without cause. Those 
fortresses which rose from the sea — the protectors of our coun- 
try from foreign aggression — were converted into Bastilles ; 
eitizens from this city and from loyal States were immured 
within their damp and gloomy walls, many of whom languish 
there to the hour I am now addressing you. 



9 



The laws which secure our liberties have not only been 
outraged but openly defied. Those of the judiciary, and there 
are many of them, who have had the courage to extend to the 
citizen his inalienable right — the writ of habeas corpus — have 
been rendered powerless. The warrant which flashed across 
the wires of the telegraph to arrest the citizen without cause, 
has been almost overtaken in its flight by the order to discharge 
him without explanation. 

No wonder that the people have looked upon these illegal 
and unconstitutional proceedings with deep concern, and, as 
Governor Seymour in his admirable letter expressed it, with 
" solemn solicitude." Dissatisfaction with the acts of the Ad- 
ministration soon becomes dissatisfaction with the government. 
The people reflect and ponder upon these things, and ask them- 
selves the value of a government which can thus act. They 
review the sacrifices they have made for its support — the blood 
and treasure they have poured forth with a prodigality almost 
without parallel in the history of nations — and ask themselves 
if these unconstitutional proceedings are the return made by 
the administration for the sacrifices they have so lavishly 
made. 

Nothing is so dangerous to the liberties of the people as the 
first inroads of a Military despotism. " Obsta princvpiis " is 
an aphorism particularly applicable to such attempts. Your 
recollections will recur to France and her emperor. Like 
Aurelian, he seized the diadem, destroyed the republic and 
every vestage of constitutional liberty. He used the machinery 
of a bribed and subservient soldiery. Military orders sup- 
pressing trial by jury were issued ; military arrests were made ; 
military prisons were created ; military tribunals constituted ; 
military despotism overthrew the French republic of 1851, 
which Napoleon, the then president, had sworn to maintain. 
The military orders of St. Arnaud and Magnan very much re- 
sembled those of Burnside and Hascall. Under a military 
order two hundred and thirty- two members of the legislature 
were conveyed in prison vans to military fortresses in France. 
Under a military order editors of journals who dared to vindi- 
cate the liberty of the press were shut up in dungeons. Under a 
2 



10 



military order, the judiciary, who had assembled in the supreme 
court in Paris, and were deliberating upon an impeachment of 
Napoleon, were rudely thrust from their court. Under a mili- 
tary order a drunken and infuriated army were turned loose in 
the streets of Paris, and unarmed men, suppliant women, and 
helpless children slaughtered. Under a military order the 
throne was usurped, and the republic of France changed into 
a military despotism. This is what oecurred within the recol- 
lection of all who hear me : and here, on the free ground of 
America ; here, on this soil sacred as an asylum for the Irish 
patriot from English persecution ; saered as the home of the 
victim of the despotisms of Europe; on this soil, under a mili- 
tary order, Clement Vallandigham has been arrested ; under a 
military order has had a mock military trial ; under a military 
order has been eondemned ; and, under a military order, has 
been banished. 

THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY. 

There is a subject admitted to be one of the immediate 
occasions of the present rebellion upon which you will probably 
expect that I should pronounce my opinion. The Southern 
institution of Slavery is a question upon which the sensibilities 
of two sections of the country have been so deeply stirred ; the 
agitation has been so acrimonious and so bitter that it is diffi- 
cult to utter the words of impartial truth. 

South Carolina alleged no other reason for her secession 
from the Union than the enactment of laws impeding the sur- 
render of fugitive slaves. Our Constitution recognizes the 
existence of slavery, although the word slavery is carefully 
excluded from that document. 

Slavery, admitted to be "a social, political, and moral 
evil," is a legacy bequeathed to us by England. The san- 
guinary philanthropists of Exeter Hall in England, in ignor- 
ance of the difficulties which surround the question in this 
country, proclaim immediate and unconditional abolition. 
Let me pause for a moment, and recur to its origin in this 
country. 



11 

The testimony of authentic history attests the notorious 
facts that the African slave trade was carried on by the British 
nation for more than two centuries, under the patronage of its 
government, and protected by charters of monopoly and public 
treaties ; not for the supply of their own colonies merely, but 
those of France and Spain, before even the slightest effort had 
been made to awaken the public mind to a sense of its enormous 
iniquity. Under the first Stnart kings of England, charters 
were granted incorporating joint stock companies, endowed 
witli the exclusive privilege of carrying on trade with Africa. 
The operations of these companies were sustained by all the 
power and patronage of the British government, both in legis- 
lative measures and diplomatic acts. The memorable treaty 
of Utrecht, 1713, — by which the Spanish succession-war was 
terminated, the balance of power confirmed, and the maritime 
law of nations definitely settled, — so far as depending on con- 
ventions, granted " to her Britannic majesty, and to the com- 
pany of her subjects established for that purpose (the South 
Sea Company), as well the subjects of Spain, all others being 
excluded, the contract for introducing negroes into several 
parts of the dominions of his catholic majesty in America 
(commonly called El pacto de el Assiento de negros), at the 
rate of 4,800 negroes yearly, for the space of thirty years suc- 
cessively." 

In the debate which took place in the House of Commons, 
on the 16th of June, 1815, relating to the negotiations at the 
Congress of Vienna respecting this matter, Lord Brougham 
stated, that " by the treaty of Utrecht, which the execrations 
of ages had left inadequately censured, Great Britain was con- 
tent to obtain, as the whole price of Itamillies and Blenheim, 
an additional share of the accursed slave trade." 

Mr. C. Grant said in the House of Commons, on the 9th 
February, 1818, that "in the beginning of the last century we 
deemed it a great advantage to obtain, by the Assiento contract, 
the right of supplying with slaves the possessions of that very 
power we were now paying for abolishing the trade. During 
the negotiations which preceded the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
we higgled for four years longer of this exclusive trade ; and 



12 



in the treaty of Madrid we clung to the last remains of the 
Assiento contract. 

The principal object, however, of the slave trade, so long 
carried on by Great Britain, was the supply of her own colo- 
nies in North America and the West Indies. The British 
settlers in the colonies which now form the five southern 
states of the American Union, were naturally tempted by the 
example of the West Indian planters to substitute for white 
servants the labor of African slaves, better fitted by their phy- 
sical constitution to endure the toil of cultivating, under a 
burning sun, the rich soil of that region. The desire to obtain an 
ample supply of these laborers was powerfully stimulated by the 
encouragement of the British Government, which sought, by this 
means, at once, to increase the amount of colonial produce for 
home consumption and re-exportation, and to discourage the emi- 
gration of its European subjects to the New World, where they 
were but too much disposed to seek refuge from the oppression of 
the Restoration. " On the accession of Charles II," says 
Davenant, " a representation being made to him that the 
British plantations in America were by degrees advancing to 
such a condition as necessarity required a greater yearly sup- 
ply of servants and laborers than could well be spared from 
England, without the danger of depopulating his Majesty's 
native dominions, his Majesty did (upon account of supplying 
these plantations with negroes), publicly invite all his subjects 
to the subscription of a new joint-stock company for recovering 
and carrying on the trade to Africa." 

The southern colonists yielded with too much facility to 
the temptation thus held out to them of being relieved from 
the wasting labor of the field, under a burning snn, and with 
respect to one particular species of cultivation (that of rice), in 
a marshy soil, whose pestilent exhalations arc fatal to whites, 
whilst they were thus left with leisure and the means of pro- 
viding for their defence against the incursion of a savage foe. 
Not so with the settlers of New England. They stood less in 
need of this class of servants, and, therefore, more readily list- 
ened to the voice of conscience. The colony of Massachusetts, 
as early as 104-5, enacted a law prohibiting the buying and 



13 



selling of slaves, " except those taken in lawful war, or reduced 
to servitude for their crimes by a judicial sentence," and these 
were to be allowed "the same privileges as were allowed by the 
law of Moses." This prohibition, with its exception, conceived 
in the spirit of Puritanism, must have fallen into disuse, since 
we find in 1703 the legislature of Massachusetts imposed a 
heavy duty on negroes imported into that colony. And in 
1767 they attempted to establish a dut} r equivalent to the abso- 
lute prohibition of the introduction of slaves, which was de- 
feated by the opposition of the council appointed by the crown. 
Had the bill passed the two branches of the legislature it must 
have been destroyed by the negative of the governor, as all 
tlie royal governors had express instructions from the British 
cabinet to reject bills of that description. 

The colonial legislatures of Pennsylvania and New Jerse} 7 
followed the example of New England in seeking to interdict 
the further importation of African slaves by prohibitive duties. 
But the influence of the African Company, and other slave- 
traders in the mother country, was ever found adequate to 
cause their enactments to be rejected by the crown. It is 
stated by Lord Brougham, in that celebrated work on the 
" Colonial Policy of the European Powers," which, at an early 
period of his brilliant career, earned for him the highest repu- 
tation in economical science, that " every measure proposed by 
the colonial legislatures which did not meet the entire concur- 
rence of the British cabinet was sure to be rejected in the last 
instance by the crown. In the colonies, the direct power of 
the crown, backed by all the resources of the mother country, 
prevented any measure obnoxious to the crown from being 
carried into effect, even by the unanimous efforts of the colonial 
legislature. If examples were required, we might refer to the 
history of the abolition of the slave-trade in Virginia. A duty 
on the importation of negroes had been imposed, amounting to 
a prohibition. One assembly, induced by a temporary pecu- 
liarity of circumstances, repealed this law by a bill which re- 
ceived the immediate sanction of the crown. But never after- 
wards could the royal assent be obtained to a renewal of the 
duty ; although, as we are told by Mr, Jefferson, all manner 



14 



of expedients were tried for this purpose by almost every sub- 
sequent assembly that met under the colonial government. 
The very first assembly that met under the new. constitution 
finally prohibited the traffic." 

Edmund Burke, in his celebrated speech on conciliation 
with America, recognized her " refusal to deal any more in the 
inhuman traffic of the negro slaves," as one of the causes of her 
quarrel with Great Britain. And, in the first clause of the 
independent constitution of Virginia, "the inhuman use of the 
royal negative" in this matter is enumerated among the rea- 
sons justifying the separation of the colonies from the mother 
country. It is, then, not too much to assert that the institution 
of slavery, which has now become identified with the social 
system of the Southern States, was originally established 
among them by the selfish policy of the mother country, and 
was perpetuated by the refusal of the metropolitan government 
to concur in the measures necessary to prevent the increase of 
the evil by importation. We may even go further, and affirm, 
with the able author of the "Appeal from the Judgments of 
Great Britain respecting the United States," that the institution 
of slavery would never have existed in the latter, or, at least, 
would have been abolished by the efforts of the colonies them- 
selves, if it had not been for the counteracting power of the 
mother country. The earliest denunciations of the iniquities 
of the slave-trade proceeded from that province founded by 
William Penn. And the great English apostle of abolition has 
borne testimony to the fact that the writings which gave the 
first impulse to the benevolent efforts of his religious sect in 
this cause proceeded from the same quarter. Long before 
Clarkson had succeeded in rousing the English nation from its 
apathy on this subject — an apathy which had been confirmed 
by selfish class-interests, then enlisted in favor, as they are now 
enlisted against, the slave-trade — Anthony Benczet, and a 
crowd of other American philanthropists, had anticipated his 
labors in the same field. 

AVe are told by Lord Brougham that "The Couit was de- 
cidedly against abolition. George III. always regarded the 
question with abhorence, as savoring of innovation — and inno- 



15 



vation in a part of his empire connected with his earliest and 
most rooted prejudices, the colonics ! The courtiers took, as is 
their wont, the color of their sentiments from him. The House 
of Lords were of the same opinion." 

England must take the responsibility of the origin and con- 
tinuance of slavery. 

I would advocate the adoption of effectual and decisive 
measures for the amelioration of the condition of the slave 
population ; every measure which would tend to their pro- 
gressive improvement, and calculated to prepare them for a 
participation in civil rights. This should be done legally and 
constitutionally, and with the fair and equitable consideration 
of the interests of private property. I do not believe that this 
war should be made subservient to the views of the abolition 
party in this country. Every instinct of freedom that I pos- 
sess would induce me to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, 
but I cannot concur with those who make the hour of their 
country 's difficulty their opportunity. Mr. Canning, in intro- 
ducing resolutions in the House of Commons in 1824, with 
reference to the slave population in the West Indies, expressed 
a constitutional and sound view upon this question. He said 
immediate emancipation to the negro would indeed be a fatal 
gift ; to be safely enjoyed it must be gradually and diligently 
earned. " Hand facilem esse viam voluit," is the condition 
under which it has pleased Divine Providence that all the 
valuable objects of human aspiration should be attained. This 
condition is the legitimate stimulant of laudable industry, and 
the best corrective of ambitious desire. No effort of an indi- 
vidual, and no enactment of a legislature, can relieve human 
nature from the operation of this condition. To attempt to 
shorten the road between desire and attainment, is nine times 
out of ten to go astray, jmd to miss the wished-for object 
altogether. I am fully persuaded that freedom, when ac- 
quired under the regulations prescribed by government, will 
be a more delightful, as well as a more safe and more stable 
possession, than if it were bestowed by a sudden acclamation. 
In dealing with the negro, we must remember that we are 
dealing with a being possessing the form and strength of a 
man, but the intellect only of a child. To turn him loose in 



1G 



the manhood of his physical strength, in the maturity of his 
physical passions, but in the infimcy of his unobstructed reason, 
would be to raise up a creature resembling the splendid fiction 
of a recent romance, the hero of which constructs a human 
form, with all the corporeal capabilities of man, and with the 
thews and sinews of a giant; but, being unable to impart to 
the work of his hands a perception of right and wrong, he finds 
too late that he has only created a more than mortal power of 
doing mischief, and himself recoils from the monster which he 
has made. 

Such would be the effect of a sudden emancipation before 
the negro was prepared for the enjoyment of well-regulated 
liberty. I, therefore, would proceed gradually, because I would 
proceed safely. I know that the impulse of enthusiasm would 
carry us much faster than I am prepared to go. I know it is 
objected that all this preparation will take time. Take time ! 
To be sure it will ; to be sure it should ; to be sure it must ! 
Time? Why, what is it we have to deal with ? Is it with an 
evil of yesterday's origin ? with a thing which is grown up in 
our time, of which we have watched the growth, measured the 
extent, and which we have ascertained the means of correcting 
or controlling? No; we have to deal with an evil which is 
the growth of centuries, and of tens of centuries ; which is al- 
most coeval with the deluge ; which has existed under different 
modifications since man was man. Do we, in the ardor of our 
nascent reformation, forget that during the ages for which this 
system has existed no preceding generation of legislators has 
ventured to touch it with a reforming hand ? And have we 
the vanity to flatter ourselves that we can annihilate at a 
blow? No, no ; we must be contented to proceed, as I have 
already said, gradually and cautiously ; and what I have now 
laid before the House is, I flatter myself, sufficient for the 
first step in a process which will widen and strengthen as it 
goes." 

This w r as the opinion of a statesman who was as anxious for 
human freedom as any man who ever breathed, and I cite it as 
being applicable, in many respects, to the question which has 
been, and, I believe, ever will be, as long as the present con- 



17 



dition of things lasts, a never-failing source of agitation. The 
institution of slavery is an element of the Constitution ; the 
dark blood is in the body politic, and it requires no acquaint- 
ance with the laws of physiology to know that diseases in the 
blood do not admit of violent and sudden eradication. 

INTERVENTION, &C 

During the progress of this war, and very early after its 
breaking out, England issued a proclamation dignifying a rebel 
with the rank of a belligerent. France adopted the same 
course. I am not prepared to say but that later in the contest 
the usages of International Law would have rendered such a 
proclamation necessary ; but occurring at the time it did, it 
was deemed by this country, and I think justly deemed, a 
hasty and unfriendly act. Since that day, the country has 
been agitated, and I think, needlessly -agitated, by rumors and 
reports of Intervention by the powers of Europe in this unhappy 
quarrel ; and every mail has brought the news of threats of 
recognition by the same powers, or one of them, of the Southern 
Confederacy. There has already probably been a discussion 
in the British House of Commons upon the subject. A dys- 
peptic and splenetic politician (Mr. Roebuck), has given notice 
of a motion to be made in the last week of June, " That 
an address be presented to the Crown that her majesty 
would cause negotiations to be entered into with European 
powers with a view to the recognition of the Confederate States 
of America." Such a motion is prompted more by a feeling of 
animosity to the North, than by any regard to the Southern 
States. Probably there will be no practical result to such a 
debate. A great deal of bitterness arising from jealousy of 
the power of America will be discharged. If there be a divis- 
ion, it will, I believe, be small and insignificant. Her majes- 
ty's government will probably declare, as they have done before, 
" that the time and manner of recognizing- the Southern Con- 
federacy must be left to them," and thus the question for the 
present will be left. • 

Recognition of the Southern Confederacy is now impossible, 
unless by an intentional violation of every principle of Inter- 
3 



18 



national Law, — the code regulating the intercourse of nations. 
There cannot be said to be a de facto government of the 
Southern Confederacy. They cannot export one bale of cotton, 
nor import one pound of gunpowder, but by eluding a 
blockade. 

This rebellion is not a revolution, — it is not the uprising of 
a people injured and oppressed by misrule and tyranny, — it has 
none of the dignity of a revolution. It is rank, unjustified, and 
unjustifiable rebellion. Recognition of the Southern Con- 
federacy by a European power, or a combination of European 
powers, although an act not necessarily hostile, nor of itself a 
cause of war, would lead to coinplieations which would inevit- 
ably result in war. The latest instance of the recognition by 
the Powers of Europe was that of the kingdom of Italy, but 
the annexation of the South of Italy to the crown of Victor 
Emanuel was the result of the aet of the whole people, whose 
monarch had fled from his throne at Naples (a habit very 
common to the Bourbon race), and who voted by the voice of 
the whole country for their annexation to the crown of Pied- 
mont. 

Then we hear of Intervention by the Powers of Europe. I 
see no reason why the cabinets of St. James and the Tuileries 
are to be the arbiters of the destinies of this country. The 
North would not, I trust, tolerate intervention, and the South 
have spurned it. 

There is no pretext of treaties or alliances upon which it 
could be based. Intervention can take place only at the re- 
quest of one of the parties to the quarrel. The course, pursued 
by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and the firm attitude he 
has taken upon this subject — vital to the interests and the 
dignity of the United States, — and the spirit which has 
animated all his diplomatic correspondence, entitle him, in my 
humble judgment, to the lasting gratitude of his country. 

THE r-RESENT. 

An oration — such as you have done me the honor to request 
this day — must necessarily be cursory and superficial. The 



19 



theme of the past, the present, and the probable future of a 
nation is too vast a topic. I defy the most far-seeing statesman 
to give you a glimpse now of the future. Prophecies have 
been indulged in which events have speedily falsified. We 
have read that in ninety days this rebellion was to have been 
crushed ; — that Richmond was to have been taken before the 
first of May, 1862; — that the great Anaconda was to encircle 
in its folds the Southern armies, and lay them prostrate at the 
feet of the North. Diplomatic correspondence has been full 
of prophecies of the speedy termination of the war, and the 
triumph of the arms of the North. We have overrated our 
own power, and underrated that of the South. We have met 
a gallant, determined, and united foe. The contest has been 
rendered more intense, more lasting, and more bitter by a mis- 
taken and infatuated policy. It is not a war of a monarch for 
the subjugation of a province, but an effort to compel States 
who have vaunted their sovereignty, and have declared that 
they know no tribunal upon earth above their own authority, 
to rejoin the Federal compact. A doctrine which destroys 
the very basis of the Federal Constitution, and brings back to 
us the anarchy of 1787, was propounded before the Senate of 
the United States in 1S33. The " Nullification " theory, com- 
prised in a sentence of Vice-President Calhoun, — " That the 
Constitution is a compact to which the States were parties in 
their sovereign capacity; that whenever a compact is entered 
into by parties which acknowledge no common arbiter to de- 
cide to the last resort, each of them has the right to judge for 
itself in relation to the nature, extent, and obligations of the 
instrument," was fatal to the Union. 

AVhen South Carolina perceived that Congress turned a 
deaf ear to its remonstrances, it threatened to apply the doc- 
trine of Nullification to the Federal tariff law. Congress per- 
sisted in its system, and at length the storm broke out. In the 
course of 1822, the people of South Carolina named a national 
convention to consult upon the extraordinary measures which 
remained to be taken ; and, on the 24th of November of the 



20 



same year, tliis convention promulgated a law, under the form 
of a decree, which annulled the Federal law of the tariff, fur- 
bade the levy of the imposts which that law commands, and 
refused to recognize the appeal which might be made to the 
Federal courts of law. Open and avowed treason to the Con- 
stitution. 

This decree was preceded by a report of the committee by 
which it was framed, containing the explanation of the motives 
and object of the law. The following passage occurs in it (p. 
34) : " When the rights reserved by the Constitution to the 
different States are deliberately violated, it is the duty and the 
right of those States to interfere, in order to check the progress 
of the evil ; to resist usurpation, and to maintain within their 
respective limits those powers and privileges which belong to 
them as independent sovereign States. If they were destitute 
of this right, they would not be sovereign. South Carolina 
declares that she acknowledges no tribunal upon earth above 
her authority. She has, indeed, entered into a solemn compact 
of union with the other States ; but she demands, and will 
exercise, the right of putting her own construction upon it ; 
and when this compact is violated by her sister States, and by 
the government which they have created, she is determined to 
avail herself of the unquestionable right of judging what is the 
extent of the infraction, and what are the measures best fitted 
to obtain justice." Meantime, South Carolina armed her 
militia, and prepared for war. 

Upon this pretext South Carolina drove the Union to the 
verge of a civil war ; and she led the van of this rebellion upon 
the pretext that the general conduct of the North and the laws 
of some of the States obstructed the surrender of her fugitive 
slaves. 

"We must appreciate the difficulties of this national crisis, 
and endeavor to rise to the level of the national emergency. 
"Do you believe that this great republic, this national consoli- 
dation of States, can ever be restored? 11 is the question now 
upon every lip. A considerable party in this country, and 






21 



many of deserved influence from tlieir talents and their posi- 
tion, advocate " peace." I venture to differ from them. At 
this juncture the demand for peace should not come from the 
North, nor be canvassed, while one single rebel holds a sword 
within his grasp. " Lay down your arms," I would say to 
them, " and I will be the very first to put an end to this inter- 
necine struggle." We were at peace — -why are we not at peace 
now f The North has not waged the war for any purpose of 
aggression or conquest, but it has been forced upon us in 
self-defence. You, the South, had the constitution and the 
laws, the executive, the congress, and the courts, much con- 
trolled by yourselves. You were dissatisfied with legal pro- 
tectors and constitutional remedies." You have grasped the 
sword and brought the horrors and the guilt of this civil war 
upon the country. " You have aimed at the destruction of a 
government by which your interests have been protected and 
favored." You have severed the bonds of the Union, and can- 
celled the compact which secured peace." " You fired upon 
the flag, the sacred shield of our common nationality." You 
seized the national forts and plundered the national arsenals. 
"You cried, 'Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war ' on the 
loyal citizens of Western Virginia." You poured your armies 
into the peaceful valleys of Tennessee and Missouri. You 
have dissolved the dream of peace and happiness which slum- 
bered over half the western hemisphere. You have caused 
the widows' tears and the orphans' suppliant cry. " The cry 
for peace is to come from you, and you only." 

This is the language which, I think, should be addressed to 
armed rebellion. 

THE FUTURE. 

An ignoble peace would be a national degradation ! At this 
moment, with the Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania 
before us, it would be attributed, to fear. That man is a true 
patriot who can devise some mode by which the struggle can 
be terminated ; but the North must not, cannot sue for peace. 



22 



Is it to be a war of subjugation? The term is used by those 
wlio forget all the lessons of History. A war of subjugation 
of such a people, on such a territory, is beyond human effort. 
This war has now lasted more than two years, and yet I read 
in the " Herald " of yesterday morning, this paragraph : 

" Washington, July 1, 1863. 
" Serious apprehensions are entertained that Lee's army may take a line of 
retreat from Maryland, and reach Washington before it can be defended by the 
Union army." 

And also this statement : 

" We are happy to say that no rebels are to be seen within ten miles of Wash- 
ington." 

If Yieksburg is captured, and if the army of Lee were 
defeated and scattered into companies to-morrow, beyond all 
power of re-organization, a war of subjugation would be impos- 
sible. 

More eloquent lips than mine have discoursed on these 
occasions on the bright future and the glorious destinies of 
this country. We meet here in an hour "big with the fate" 
of a nation's hope. Is this grand confederation to be annihi- 
lated and resolved into its original elements ? Are the States 
which now compose it, to return to their isolated condition and 
new Unions to be formed out of its wreck ? Is this mighty 
continent to be divided into petty republics as Italy w r as in the 
middle ages? Is it to fall, as all republics have fallen, into 
anarchy and chaos by the corruptions, the ambitions and the 
treachery of its own citizens? Athens thought herself immor- 
tal, but she lived to be insulted by the servile Ottoman. We 
are too young to die! Our republic may live when the mon- 
archies of Europe shall be forgotten; but its life depends -on 
the courage, the firmness and the patriotism of its citizens. 

Are we to behold the broken and dishonored fragments of 
a once glorious union, and see States dissevered, discordant 
and belligerent ? 

It depends upon your devotion and your energy. Sacrifices 
have already been made ; you must be prepared to make 
more. 



23 



This occasion demands from us the tribute of our gratitude 
to these brave men whose unyielding courage and ardent 
patriotism have upheld the prowess of the national arms. Let 
us assure our soldiers that their blood has not moistened the 
soil of Virginia in vain ; and the cause fur which they cheer- 
fully died shall suffer no dishonor at our hands. 

Machines, in that remarkable speech against Ctesiphon, — 
dear to the memory of every classic, — apostrophized those who 
had fallen for their country's liberty on the plains of Marathon 
and Platsej, and called from their graves the spirits of the 
illustrious Athenian dead. I invoke you by the same charm. 
Sink all differences, — make party and faction subservient to 
your country's honor. Let every youth before me be able to 
say, with the illustrious orator and patriot of Rome, — 
" Defendi Rempublicam Adolescens." 

And no prouder epitaph can adorn the tomb of the old than 
the words — 

Non deseram Senex. 

The history of a magnificent p ist is before you. Whilst 
wars have devastated every nation of Europe, — while civil 
discord has torn and dismembered kingdoms, — we have been 
at peace. Europe has been convulsed with revolutions, — we 
have been pursuing peace, and have been blessed with un - 
exampled prosperity. The rickety despotisms of Europe have 
been shaken to their foundations, and we have been unharmed ; 
and, severe as the ordeal through which our country must pass? 
let every aspiration and every hope be — 

" That she shall remain to all invulnerable, 
Like a great sea-mark standing every flaw, 
And saving those that eye her " ! ! ! 



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